[event & review] Food-blogger Gathering @ Pepper Lunch, Citos.

Let's see what would happen when food-lovers gather together in a restaurant with good food...




It was a beautiful Saturday morning, last week, when 20 something Indonesian food-bloggers gathered in a 'recently open' Pepper Lunch Outlet. This is the 17th outlet in Indonesia.

It's located on the second floor of a popular place to hang out in South Jakarta, Cilandak Town Square a.k.a Citos. Not only in Jakarta, Pepper Lunch outlets are also available in Bandung, Surabaya, Medan, Bali and Makassar.

The pretty facade and beautiful color combination on it are really inviting customers to visit this restaurant. Complete menu list, mock up of some food, and a TV screen showing us how to prepare the food are displayed outside of the restaurant. It helps first time customer to get the idea about the restaurant.





Most of us arrived on time. Thank you.
Just in minutes, half of the restaurant was occupied by them. We enjoyed the beautiful cozy interior, hospitality of the staffs, and the clean environment.

I did enjoy the calm tone of the interior. 'Black board' wallpaper that was written with the concept including flow charts of 'how to prepare the food'. Some menus and nice photographs are framed and hung on the walls. Flat TV screens are placed as part of interior and also giving information of how to prepare the food to customers.





Answering to our curiosity and hungry faces, Rika Fardani, the Pepper Lunch Marketing Manager explained us the product knowledge;

* Pepper Lunch is The Original Japanese DIY Teppan Restaurant.

* Do It Yourself, we can enjoy the fun experience to cook our meal by ourselves.

* The food will be served on a special unique iron plate. Using a special high power electromagnetic cooker, the plate will heat up to 260 C in just 70 seconds and remains hot (about 80 C) for more than 20 minutes. The plate keeps the food warmed for sufficient time and we can enjoy the full flavor of the dish.

* The good quality of the ingredients make the difference as they use selected ingredients; premium beef from Australia and New Zealand, Norwegian salmon and selected chicken meat.

* Two super special ingredients in Pepper Lunch are Butter (that contains the super secret ingredients in it) and fresh ground Pepper (they grind the pepper every morning and replace the pepper every single day!).

* Two delicious sauce are available; Garlic Sauce and Honey Sauce.




- The most famous menu : The Ultimate DIY Steak. I'll try one day.

The food, behind the scene... 
Enough exploring every corner of the restaurant, having enough information about the restaurant and the food, now... lets go to see their clean and organized kitchen.


Morning Meeting for the Restaurant Staffs.


Pantry. Picture was taken from the cashier table.



We passed the pantry, and ...they allowed us to go inside the kitchen! How fun our adventure was!
Looked like everybody was busy in the kitchen. Row of small plates, with the raw beef/chicken/fish on each plate and covered by the order information were ready to be processed.

One by one, was taken and processed by the other staffs.



They're working very fast, I can say... too fast for me to take pictures of the food preparations. Working fast, clean and organized. The good result is... It won't take long for our order to be served. 

Preparing the 'Pepper Rice'
Since all menus to be ordered during the gathering is all about Pepper Rice, so... here you can see how my camera caught the dish preparation.

The special shape of aluminium bowl is used to form the rice on the 260 C special hot plate, and a spoonful of special butter was placed on the notch of the special white rice then covered by steamed corn, sprinkled by special fresh ground pepper, salt, and garlic sauce. Last it was topped by chopped spring onions. Raw sliced selection beef/chicken/salmon were placed around the rice.

Now, you could imagine...how special the dish is.

What you have to do next... it's important to read the instruction printed on the paper surrounding the hot plate! "Hurry!! Mix them up!"

Do It Yourself.
At the beginning, big questions were flying around in my mind...
Are they serving a raw meat? raw fish? no way!!
and
I had no idea what the motto 'Do It Yourself' or 'Sizzling Yourself' mean. 
Do we need to prepare the food by ourselves? Oh give me a break! I cook at home everyday, do I have to cook in the restaurant by myself and pay the food ? No, Sir, no..no..



Then soon, after the food with tantalizing aroma was ready (and some friends still were busy taking pictures of the food :D) ...we realized... we couldn't leave the food without doing anything with it.
This is the special part of this restaurant.
An unique eating experience!





Here we go. When my order 'Salmon Pepper Rice' was coming... my questions were answered.
Yes... the salmon was half raw! 
But remember, it comes on a super hot plate...
and Yes... I had to 'cook', but without cooking preparation *happy*. As soon as the plate is coming in front of us, I took a picture and started to mix them up... I let the spoonful special butter that hidden under the corn and spring onion got melted, spread it to create special flavor to the dish.



I was enjoying the mixing part, until all the butter got absorbed by the rice and fish, the seasoning were spread evenly, and... I decided to add some delicious honey sauce which  available on every table hoping adding slightly sweetness to the dish.

Oh... perfect, I felt like a good chef! 
My dish is super delicious. The harmony of sweet and savory mixed beautifully on my dish, and the salmon is 100% cook now. ...At this point I need to say, I have to come back here, bring my family and let them enjoy the new unique eating experience!

A beautiful ending...



Layers of Red Velvet cakes and creamy cream cheese were served in cups.
Oooh... this dessert sent me to higher part of the sky. Delicious.
Unfortunately, they served one cup only per person :(
I want more. Can I, please...?

One more thing that impressed me; this restaurant is a family friendly place. Smoking is strictly prohibited.
I really hope, Pepper Lunch is maintaining this healthy atmosphere, following the government no-smoking in public places law. I'll be happy to bring my children to enjoy the delicious healthy meal.

Eating completely delicious food, meeting many friends (old and new), non stop chatting, non stop taking pictures like paparazzi,...
What a nice memorable morning for us.







We left the restaurant with big happy face, happy tummy, beautiful friendship.
Special thanks for Pepper Lunch Citos, for hosting the event.

Here, the happy faces of the Indonesian Food-bloggers with full tummy.
*I'm not in the picture... I was hiding behind the camera, sorry...
Soon the mall security dismissed us because we were blocking the whole corridor..ha..ha...







Pepper Lunch Cilandak Town Square, 2nd floor - unit 117-119. South Jakarta.
Chicken Pepper Rice Rp 40.909
Beef Pepper Rice Rp 48.128
Salmon Pepper Rice Rp 65.455
Red Velvet dessert cup Rp 18.182